Hype Williams Speaks

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Acclaimed video director lends his talents to The Urbz: Sims in the City

By Spence D.

Hype Williams should need no introduction. Easily one of the most influential music video directors of the past decade, Williams' unique visual flair has helped countless artists, most of whom dwell within the arena of modern day R&B and Rap, achieve new levels of exposure.

I mean who can forget the indelible images of Busta Rhymes in "Whoo-Ha!! Got You All in Check" or Missy Elliott in "The Rain"?

Williams' latest endeavor, however, is something of a departure for the director. He's currently working on putting together a video that ties into EA's The Urbz: Sims in the City game, utilizing visuals from the game along with original music crafted by the Black Eyed Peas.

We caught up with Hype to talk about the project and his career.

Spence D., Editor-in-Chief, IGN Music: So you're directing an animated video for The Urbz: Sims in the City, using Black Eyed Peas music correct?

Hype Williams: Basically what they've done is that EA has recruited me to take this music that the Black Eyed Peas have done exclusively for the game, to create something cool that is music video-esque for these characters.

IGN Music: Now I've grown up on your videos, but I won't even try and front and say that I've seen them all&#Array;

HW: [laughs] Yeah, there's hundreds of them!

IGN Music: &#Array;but to the best of my knowledge, you've never done anything like this before, where you're working with pre-existing graphics and animation.

HW: No. And this whole year I've been working with EA just kind of like in a really different capacity, where I've done some camera work on games like NBA Street 3 and I'm gonna be doing some camera work on Fight Night 2 and just in general, I'm a heavy gamer and I hope to partner up with EA on making some really great games. Also, in return, they've recruited me to come in and take some of the cool music that they have and apply it to some of their game assets and make something cool out of it all.

IGN Music: How does this kind of work differ from working on a live action video with the likes of Missy, Busta or whoever?

HW: It's just a different aesthetic, really. The colors are really the same, the usage is the same, and I'm still working with great music&#Array;like the Black Eyed Peas music is awesome. I'm really just being creative. It's just another extension of me being creative.

IGN Music: For this particular project, did you sit down with the game and the music and then come up with ideas?

HW: Yeah. Basically I dove all the way in and played the game and just got an understanding of the different districts that are in the game, which are all these different quadrants of a cityscape. I just really got a sense of the overall aesthetic of the game and how the characters relate to that and then with the music it was a no-brainer. That's just what I do. So basically I'm taking the footage and coming up with something cool.

IGN Music: Now are you taking chunks of the game and turning that into a video?

HW: Well it's a really entertaining game. There's a lot of things that you can do in the game that relate to lifestyle. So I'm taking lifestyle pieces and parts of the different districts and just making a montage set to the Black Eyed Peas.